176 
occur at the same time on the coast and in the interior, 
and snow falls in the Cordillera when it rains in the. 
low country; but the case is very different in Peru, where | 
rain falls inland and snow on the Cordillera during those 
months when the sky is clear towards the coast. These rains 
begin in November, and last till March or April; while the 
misty season, in the maritime district, is from May till Octo- 
ber. Hence, summer and winter, in warm climates, being 
synonymous with dry and rainy season, we have winter in 
the interior when it is summer on the coast, and vice-versa. 
One frequently hears this on arriving in the country, but the 
anomalous fact at first sounds strangely to those who have 
been accustomed to use the terms winter and summer with 
relation to the sun’s position, north or south of the Equator. 
This singular contrast of the seasons may be witnessed 
almost every day in the middle of the Lima summer, from 
the bridge of that city, which commands an extensive view 
up the Valley of the Rimac: the dark rain-clouds are seen 
rolling among the mountains, where the tempest is raging 0 
the interior, and sometimes a faint echo of distant thunder 
reaches the ear; the swollen river, coloured red with 
earth washed from the hills, runs foaming beneath the feet 
of the spectator, and he is all the while standing under 2 
bright and cloudless sky, on a spot where a storm was never 
known in the memory of man. | Ae 
As an account of the road between Lima and Pasco will 
serve to illustrate these remarks, it will be better now to g'¥ 
a sketch of my journey thither, and afterwards conclude what 
I have to say on this subject. i 
A few years ago, the name of Pasco was hardly known m 
England, although its mines are among the richest in South 
America; but since the opening of the trade to Peru, and " 
formation of companies for draining and working the mine» - 
it has become a place of great interest to our merchants +? 
greater part of the silver coined in Lima, and exported in 
exchange for foreign goods, being produced there. 
"The mines of Pasco are situated about 45 leagues N. E 
of Lima, at the eastern extremity of a large plain, wh 
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